Suggestion letter to president Duterte

[Forward note: my frustrations when dealing with the locals has reached a point where I could not resist from writing this letter to the president. One may invest heavily into faster internet or infrastructure, for faster transport, but if the people continue to move slower than snails, it can be a wasted investment.]

Dear Mr. President Duterte, 

I have been following you closely and would like to compliment you on a
lot of your decisions. I am a businessman and for me I see as very good
your desire to speed up the internet and invest into infrastructure. 
In any case, I have one small suggestion which I think could have a
great positive effect in your country. 

I've been here for two years now and must say that it can be incredibly
frustrating the pace things can take to get done here. If someone wants
to make a phone and needs a keyboard, the person making the keyboard
waits for the person making the keys, and the person to make the keys
waits for the person who makes the numbers, and you can see by this
chain that if each person took forever to do their small part, it would
take forever times forever before the phone is made, probably well after
it has already become obsolete technology. I believe this may be one of
the biggest reasons your country is poor. Look at Singapore. They do not
have fish practically jumping out of the water into their mouths for
free. They have no resources like this country is rich in, yet it is one
of the wealthiest countries in the world. Their only resource is their
hands, and quick and honest work. They do not constantly try to increase
their price every time you go to their store. 

And I believe the reason people are so incredibly slow here is precisely
because your country is so full of resources and fish jumping out of the
water. It is paradise here and people have naturally developed the
mentality: "There is always tomorrow". I organise boat tours, one of my
businesses, and it is often a struggle to explain to the boatmen that
these tourists have paid a lot of money to fly all the way out here to
enjoy this beautiful paradise for a short while, and pay to stay in
expensive hotels etc., so when they show up on time to start their boat
tour at 8am and stand around waiting for at least an hour for the
boatman to eventually lazily show up, you can understand that they can
get upset, because their limited vacation time is being eaten away by
someone who is used to it and gets to live here all the time. 

Therefore, my suggestion is the following. As president of a country
where such a high percentage of people support you and agree with you, I
believe it can have a great effect just to explain something like this
to your people: "Do not think there is always tomorrow to do a job,
because tomorrow will come and again you might say 'there is always
tomorrow'. And one tomorrow leads to the next and soon enough weeks,
months or even more time may have passed by before you finally did that
one little job, which you had to do anyway. So postponing it does not
make it go away, and if everyone delays their little job, it can
practically bring the country down to a grinding halt. But no, if we
change our way of thinking and do a job not only today but NOW, you will
see how much faster as a nation we can accomplish anything."

And not only say this a few times as your plea to the nation, saying
that you (as do I) have great faith in this nation's abilities, but to
get some ads on tv or something to get this message across. People can
still live in their paradise and everything can be the same, except
things would get done much faster. I believe you have the same thoughts
as I do that the Philippines is poised to enter the world scene with a
good bang. I am convinced it is an up and coming tourist hotspot. I
lived in Thailand for two years and this country absolutely kicks butt
compared to Thailand. People just need to learn to hustle a little bit
and not be so absolutely lazy and slow about everything. It is just a
small adjustment in people's mentality. They do not need to sweat and go
crazy, simply go through the motions and get it done now and not later. 

Thank you for your time and keep up the good work Mr. President, Karel

Island Hopping in the Philippines

4.9

Based on 17 reviews

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Lou Pratali

11:04 25 Jul 23

This is a must to do!!Super ultimate tour is the best with Kayangan and barracuda lake, twin lagoons (my favorite), coral garden (blue fabulous coral) were the best. It’s really worth it to pay for private tour (3500 to 4000 PHP). You will also have to pay for entrance fees (150 to 200PHP by location) and eventually shopping at the market - must do (count 300 for 2 for fish, pork, fruits and vegetables, water).

Gérard BENOIT

16:11 07 Feb 23

I was looking for a personalized excursion to the beautiful Gulf of Bacuit.Seeing the comments, I contacted Mel.Very responsive, very efficient and perfect organization.The flight attendants were very friendly and very helpful.And I'm not even talking about the meal on board...a marvel.In all fairness, this excursion will remain an excellent memory and I cannot recommend Mel and his team highly enough.A big thank-you.

Alyse Tarbotton

23:48 30 Aug 22

This tour went well above all our expectations! I couldn't recommend this enough! The boat crew, captain and tour guide were nothing but amazing, everyone was so kind, helpful and friendly. The crew knew the best spots to visit that weren't overcrowded with tourists, 3 times we were lucky enough to have whole islands to ourselves! It was my partner's birthday while away and everything went above and beyond, bonfire, cake, birthday card, singing and celebrating with us.If you love camping this is definitely a tout you should do, it has been the highlight of our trip!!

Danish Kayani

10:24 31 Oct 19

Coron is the best place i have ever seen.. picturesque. Beautiful. Peaceful

LAURA MARIAROSA BAECHLER

10:24 14 Mar 18

We booked a 4 days/3 nights private boat trip from Coron to Sibaltan. The organization went very well from the beginning, the owner answered to all my questions, and we were able to choose which islands to visit and where to sleep. The first night we slept in a bungalow in Banana Island, the second we camped in Araw beach and the last we slept in a seafront bungalow builded on a tree in Pical on Iloc Island.The islands in that area are the most beautiful islands I have ever seen, with clear water, lots of coral reef and fishes to see, white sand and almost deserted. The crew was very friendly and polite and they organize every single meal and for camping they give you a tent which was just perfect! This was our highlight in our 2 weeks in the Philippines and I wish I had booked a longer trip. A private trip gives you the freedom to decide where and when to go.

Espinosa Kosmans

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We are a family operation managing private custom boat tours in the beautiful Palawan area, and are happy to help travelers with their plans through the country, having traveled a lot of it ourselves and planning to visit it all.